Elimination of subsidies on urea, others proposed: Pakistan's Economic Roadmap Summit held

Shaukat Tarin, Adviser to Chairman, Silk Bank Limited and former federal minister for finance and economic affair on Thursday, urged for depoliticising of economic policies to underpin the country's economy and back it to fast track of growth.
Addressing a one-day "Pakistan' Economic Roadmap Summit" held at Karachi, he said that in the current economic scenario it needs to develop economic policies without any political mileage to provide a real growth to the country's economy.
Tarin said that Pakistan's tax to GDP ratio is much less than those of developing countries, therefore, some hard steps are required to be taken to enhance revenue generation and cut government's expenditures. Criticising the government's subsidy policy, he said that subsidy on urea and other sectors should be eliminated, as it being misused and resulted in negative impact on the economy. Tarin said that agricultural sector has over 65 percent share in the economy, however our per acre yield is much less than other countries. There is need to enhance per hector yield to get full advantage of agriculture country, besides proving storage facilities to the farmers.
He also suggested for a 15 years energy plan to overcome from current energy crisis, as the worst energy shortage is directly hurting the country's economy growth. "Majority of our population is below 25 years of age and we need to create job opportunities for them on war footings", he said and added that a holding company be established that work with a task to put back all loss incurring organisations in next 5 years. Tarin also offered his services to design an economic structure for the real economic growth in the country.
Addressing the summit, Nadeem Hussain president and CEO Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited said that Pakistan could attain self-reliance over a period of time by implementing a strategy that aims at reducing the dependence on aid immediately and eliminating it over the time, it should emphasise on setting investment, saving import and export target consistent with self reliance without jeopardising the growth prospects.
Self-reliance growth has been the avowed objective of successive governments in Pakistan, however various policy-makers defined self-reliance to mean quite different things over period of time. As a result, neither any strategy has been formulated, nor have any policy measures been devised to attain self-reliance, he added. Talking about the energy crisis, he said that existing source of power generation is adequate enough to meet power demand of Pakistan. However, there are some issues to be addressed. This includes circular debt issue, subsidy elimination, and inefficiencies in power generation and line losses, which constitute over 20 percent.
Urging for consistency in the economic policies, Nadeem Hussain has suggested that tax reforms should be implemented with an aim to bring all sectors in tax net with "Taxation for All" motto. In addition, on political, the role of parliament is very critical and it should pass a resolution to adopt self-reliance as a way of life in the country.
Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, CEO, Nutshell Forum said, "the aim and objective of this conference was to provide policy-makers, trade, business and academia a roadmap with well defined milestones to jump start Pakistan's economy.
The idea is to focus on a few quick wins with a medium term plan in place to capitalise on the immense potential of this country, he said and added, "we are optimistic that the existence and interaction of the key economic managers of the country, young and senior businessman, chartered accountants and tax specialists, academia and students will be an ideal opportunity to come up with robust economic plan, which can become a building block for the policies to be rolled out".
Several other renowned economists and financial sector experts participated in this summit and deliver papers and presentation on ways and methods required to put countries economy back on track. High Impact Initiatives: On Road to Recovery, Building Knowledge Economy to Foster Sustainable Economic Growth, Tax Reforms: From Rhetoric to Reality, Special Economic Zones: The Chinese Model, Entrepreneurship: The Answer to Employment Challenge, Energy: Engine for Economic Growth, Self Reliance: Myth or Reality and Economic Growth and Governance - A Close Relationship were some of the key issues on which experts shed light during this day long conference
Other speakers of the conference were: Nadeem Naqvi Managing Director, Karachi Stock Exchange, Sirajuddin Aziz President and CEO, Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited, Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig Federal Textile Advisor, S M Muneer Vice Chairman, MCB Bank Limited, Dr Ashfaque H Khan Dean and Director General, NUST Business School, Saad Amanullah Khan President, American Business Council, Humayun Bashir Vice President, OICCI, Moin M Fudda Country Director, CIPE, Majyd Aziz Chairman, SME Bank Limited, Dr Asher Hasan Founder and CEO, Naya Jeevan, Amina Hashwani President, Pakistan India CEOs Forum, Sohail Wajahat H Siddiqui Chairman, Pakistan State Oil Company Limited and Munawar Baseer Ahmed CEO, EMR-Consult were some of the prominent speakers of this daylong conference.
Professionals from diversified fields related to energy, finance, textile, academia and other prominent sectors participated in this conference and get information of some of the key issues faced by the country's economy and in depth discussion done to find out solution to bring the country out of its existing economic woes.